Archive for May, 2006
Yesterday we decided to celebrate Memorial Day (and my first official day off in quite some time) by taking Lucy up to my mother-in-law’s house to enjoy the pool. The above picture is from when we took her last time and she refused to get in unless pushed and them would immediately swim to the edge. Somehow this dog has no trepidation about getting into disgusting, insect-filled, muddy water on our hikes but when it comes to a nice clean pool or the ocean? Forget it.
We added some extra incentive this time by inviting friends with dogs who we knew would swim. Still no luck. Lucy spent most of the day running around the edge of the pool (obviously she doesn’t know the rule about that) and barking at all of us as if to warn us that we were in grave mortal danger and were about to be swallowed alive by the dreaded watery swimming pool. After a while she got tired, and quieted down. I turned around to find out what she was up to and saw this:
I guess it was her day off too.
This morning, I took Lucy for our usual 3 mile walk around the Rose Bowl and she was dragging the whole way. Poor dog, she obviously didn’t get enough quality time on that lounge chair to make the weekend worthwhile.
(sorry the pictures are so small! I can’t figure out the best way to upload pics into Wordpress!)
May 30th, 2006
aaaaaaahhh…….
That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. Since my duo recital ended last Sunday, things have FINALLY calmed down. Although I still have quite a bit of work going on, I have no major solo or chamber music concerts to get ready for which is a huge relief. Now, I can spend hours on end on the internet trying to figure out what kind of stroller to buy and weighing in on the disposable vs. cloth diaper debate. Fascinating, isn’ t it?
The weather has finally warmed up here in Southern California. I know that sounds ridiculous, but for the past month we have had gray skies every single morning. After a crazy rainstorm the other day (rain?? in May?? in L.A.???), the skies have cleared and as expected, we have skipped right over spring and gone head first into summer. I’m glad though, I like the summers here. Summer means I work less, spend a lot of time in our backyard and go to (and host) lots of barbeques. Over the next couple of weeks, we have a couple of our best friends coming to visit which I’m really looking forward to. They may be our last house guests for a while as our guest room is going to have to eventually transistion into a baby room. At about the same time I will make my transition into a 1950’s domestic goddess who can whip up casseroles and take care of screaming child all at once. Oh my God, I am terrified.
So, life is rolling on. Lucy and I have been going on lots of walks which I think has been the only thing preventing me from really blowing up like a whale. I’m 4 and a half months pregnant now, but not nearly as enormous as I thought I would be. I guess I have that to look forward to.
One new and exciting development this month has been the acquisition of my new MacBook. It is black and sexy, and I love it. As Susan might say, it is my precious ( but I hope my precious won’t die a horrible death like hers did ). Here’s one example of fun with the MacBook:
With the computer comes a program called Photo Booth that lets you take pictures of your self with the built in camera and then add effects to them. The above is the comic book version of our cat Chewie with Brian in the background (wearing his LA Marathon sweatshirt!). The large brownish-black blur to the left of Chewie is actually me. I guess I need to work with it some more. I know there have been requests for pictures of my pregnant self and I’m thinking this might be the way to do it. Maybe there’s an effect on there that will make me look like a big-bellied superhero. One can hope.
May 25th, 2006
I’ve managed to keep myself a little more active this last week which I have been proud of. I have taken Lucy for a few 3 mile walks and even managed to get to yoga class. It feels great, particularly since my predilection for ice cream and cake seems to have kicked into high gear this week (as soon as the weather warms up, I need ice cream).
I had planned a walk for this morning but had to abandon it because our plumber is coming at 7:00 to finally, at long last, fix our disgusting kitchen sink. It has been backing up like crazy for the past few weeks and is quickly becoming a pit of filth. I hope and pray that it gets fixed today. I’m not what you would consider a neat freak but even I may have to move if this sink doesn’t stop filling up with cloudy water. Hopefully, by the time I get home from my morning rehearsal I will have a clean sink and the energy to go on an afternoon walk (what a concept, exercise in the middle of the day? does that work?).
May 17th, 2006
First of all, I have been a lazy blogger. I’m sure it has really upset all five of you, so I apologize. Secondly, pregnancy has been a bitch lately. Those hormones that everyone talks about? Man, they are in full force these days. I have pretty much spent the better part of the last two days either crying, yelling at someone or eating. Sounds great, right? I’m feeling better today, mostly because I have the day off and have actually had a little time to relax.
I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I can’t function on a day to day basis in exactly the same way as I did before I got knocked up. The last few weeks have had just a few too many 12 hour days that have resulted in the previously described tantrums. So, I am doing my best to restructure my schedule in a way that will be a bit more kind to me. That is one of the perks of freelancing-being able to decide (to a certain extent) when you work and when you sit on your ass and watch TV.
The good news is now that I have a little more free time, I am trying to get back into some mellow exercise. Twice this week I have taken Lucy for a three mile walk around the Rose Bowl. I love going there, that’s where I used to run way back when. Since living in New York, it’s the only place I have found on this side of LA that reminds me a little bit of Central Park. Not in terms of landscape, but the fact that there are always-at any time of day- people out there running, walking, rollerblading and biking. It has always been helpful for me to see other folks out there working out, it sort of keeps me going back for more. Plus, you get to know the regulars (for better or for worse).
Today I also went to my second pre-natal yoga class. It was very nice. While not nearly as strenuous as the usual yoga class I take, it was nice to get a good stretch since my back is starting to feel pretty stiff-probably a combination of the baby getting bigger and too much of this. I looked at my calendar today and realized that I have only had 2 violin free days (VFD) in the last several months. I don’t like those numbers. The VFD is key to my survival as a musician, not only mentally but physically as well. My shoulders, back, arms, pretty much everything from the waist up gets wound up pretty tight after a lot of playing. So, yoga felt great. I’m going to do my best to go at least a couple times a week from now on (famous last words).
Alright, enough rambling. Time to get back to destroying my back with the violin.
May 10th, 2006
